FeatureThe UAE is a global hub for digital transformation and is leading the charge when it comes to public cloud adoption globally. Yet, as each new solution is introduced into an organisation’s technology stack, it adds more complexity and if not managed properly, cost.
According to Veritas research, 99% of UAE organisations are overspending on cloud and are going over their allocated cloud budgets by an average of 45%. As the amount of data continues to grow year over year, so does the cost of storing it in the cloud, which is becoming harder to justify. Though most companies have realised advanced business strategies through cloud adoption, CEOs and boards will increasingly demand transparency surrounding the ROI of cloud spend.
99% of UAE organisations are overspending on cloud and going over cloud budgets by an average of 45%
With many economists predicting a continued downturn next year, we expect scrutiny on IT spending to intensify further in 2023, which will put pressure on IT leaders to justify their cloud budgets while identifying new ways to reduce data volumes. This could lead to more effective data storage and management strategies, such as deduplication techniques to ensure reduced storage consumption.
According to recent research, the average UAE business currently using three different public cloud providers to meet their storage needs. While there are countless benefits to a multi-cloud strategy, such as flexibility and agility, interoperability continues to be a challenge for data managers – not only is it expensive to move data from cloud to cloud, but when clouds do not work together seamlessly, this creates silos within an organisation and can introduce major security vulnerabilities.
As the amount of data continues to grow year over year, so does the cost of storing it in the cloud
To keep up with the pace of cloud offerings and achieve business-driven cloud goals, businesses will start leveraging AI, ML and autonomous solutions to help mitigate the challenges of siloed workloads and enhance cloud interoperability through data portability. As organisations work to address interoperability challenges and gain more control in the cloud, cross-cloud data mobility will become more mainstream in 2023.
Gartner predicts that by 2025, more than 50% of enterprise-managed data will be created and processed outside the datacentre or cloud. As more data processing moves to the edge, it complicates IT architecture and increases the attack surface. Enterprises often do not apply the same level of protection to the edge as they do in the datacentre or the cloud, often due to skills and staffing shortages.
Most companies have realised advanced business strategies through cloud adoption
To fully protect the enterprise, each of these edge devices needs to be protected and backed up. On top of that, organisations need to determine what data coming from edge devices is critical versus non-critical to maintain storage and protection costs, understanding the added scrutiny on IT budgets.
Over the last 24 months, Kubernetes has become mainstream. Containers are now being adopted in mission critical environments, meaning that the application environment and the underlying data in these environments now needs protection. Over a third of UAE organisations, 32% have already deployed Kubernetes for mission critical applications but this is often being driven at the project level, with 51% of Kubernetes adoption decisions being made without significant influence from the CIO or IT leadership team.
Yet now, ownership of these containers and the protection of them has become more complex, creating silos and confusion over if it’s the backup admin or the DevOps admin that’s responsible. At the same time, organisations are struggling to identify which containers to back up and how to do so, which will likely lead to more investment in training to help close the Kubernetes skills gap. In 2023, IT departments will continue to navigate how to adequately protect and backup their Kubernetes environments.
Channel adapts to reality of 2023
According to recent data, 89% of global cloud decision makers have a multi-cloud strategy. And although businesses can now track, manage and provision cloud data in once place with cloud data management tools, they are still having to manage relationships with multiple cloud providers, which can be time consuming and complex.
In 2023, organisations will be looking to offload this responsibility to channel partners to help simplify the process and have one person to turn to for all things multi-cloud. Partners are poised to play a critical role as trusted advisors, helping their customers successfully evolve and adapt on their multi-cloud journeys by enabling them to modernise workloads while minimising costs.
The role of sourcing available equipment and solutions will become much more important for resellers in 2023. In order to be successful, they will need to be able to offer practical, affordable and, most importantly, available alternatives to their customers while helping them thoughtfully navigate their on-prem and multi-cloud environments. This will mean getting to grips with the appliances and cloud-based offerings from their vendors and ensuring constant communications with them about their stock levels.
Value-added services have historically been the key to profit making for most resellers, but the relentless march towards SaaS takes a bigger bite out of the market each year. As traditional businesses continue to decline – 28 companies dropped out of the Fortune Global 2000 this year – they are being replaced by younger companies born in the cloud and who are more inclined to SaaS adoption. As this trend continues in 2023, resellers will need to provide more strategic services beyond just ongoing management as the march towards SaaS continues.
With increased demand to provide organisations with managed data protection, MSPs will look to increase efficiency by deploying autonomous solutions that leverage AI, ML to deliver data management that is self-healing and self-optimising while eliminating some of the manual day-to-day tasks.
In 2023, look for MSPs to help fill the cybersecurity talent shortage by implementing autonomous data management solutions to ensure their customers’ data is always available and resilient from ransomware and other cyber threats.
